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A Great Start For This Year's Gaming

There are three games that I am really looking forward to, and they are top on my must-have list.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the sequel to the highly controversial 2009's FFXIII. The game (FFXIII) is not bad by any mean, but it's not great either. The general argument is that if it does not bear the name Final Fantasy, then it will probably be more well-received. The game is surprisingly linear for at least the first 20 hours, and it made the game rather less interesting compared to other Final Fantasy games. Previous Final Fantasy games provide more exploration and have more optional quests to do. Plus, with the rise of more Western RPG which are more open-ended and full of exploration (Fallout 3 & New Vegas, Mass Effect 2 and Borderland to name few), players are more accustomed to open-world RPG rather than running in a series of tight corridors. For me, FFXIII is a good game, and I enjoyed playing it until I achieved the Platinum trophy (took me about 110+ hours). This is the only Final Fantasy game that I played that I didn't finish more than once. There are definitely a lot of areas that need to be improved.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is developed with those criticism in mind, and the developer promised to fix those issues. The game will be more about exploration, and players have more options for their quest. It received well in Japan (40/40 by Famitsu), though the sell in first week is lower than FFXIII's. Gameinformer gave 8/10, criticizing the main plot, but praised the combat mechanic. My gut is telling me that it will receive about the same score with FFXIII. I will still buy it, because I am aching more more JRPGs. FFXIII-2 will be a great start in 2012 for me to enjoy JRPGs.

The first major release for 3DS in 2012 will also start with a bang, which is Resident Evil Revelations. Interestingly enough, this game is also developed with the criticism of the previous Resident Evil games in mind, particularly RE5. RE5 is also a great game, and it also strayed from the series original path. Resident Evil series started with survival horror, focusing more on staying alive, conserving ammo, and convey the feeling of helplessness to the players. RE5 focused on the actions, which is nevertheless still awesome, but die hard fans felt betrayed. Resident Evil Revelations strives to return to its horror root, and in the same time experimenting with the formula before this year's Resident Evil 6 releases.

From the reviews I read, this game also has weak story line, but the mechanics and the scares are great. Even though it is slightly over-priced ($50 instead of the usual $40 for 3DS games), I will definitely getting this game. Probably will get the Circle Pad Pro too for future games.

The third game is probably my most anticipated game since last year, and it is only a DS game. But two things about it that are enough to make me shriek like a little girl. 1) It is developed by Atlus 2) It is the sequel to my favorite JRPG in 2009, and the remake in 2011. It is Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor 2, and you don't know how long I have been waiting for the release date for this game. This game is already released in Japan for some time, but it is not until earlier this month that the official date was announced. As a big fan of JRPG, I couldn't be more happy and excited for this game. I believe there are still no review from any Western publications. You can watch the trailer here

These three games are enough to make me excited for the rest of 2012. The release dates for these games are Jan 31, Feb 7 and Feb 14, respectively.

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